Stonewall fails to have equalities watchdog stripped of UN status

STONEWALL has failed in its attempt to have Britain’s equalities watchdog stripped of top-level UN status over its stance on trans issues.

In a significant blow for the LGBT charity, an international tribunal decided that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) should retain its “A status’ as a national human rights organisation.

Stonewall and other organisations wrote to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri) last year to ask it to carry out a “special review” into the EHRC, claiming that it is anti-trans.

They cited the watchdog’s advice to the Government that the 2010 Equality Act should be rewritten to make it explicit that protections for women on the grounds of their sex means their biological sex and not the gender they identify with. The organisation was angry with the commission’s advice that transgender people could be excluded from single-sex services if the reasons were “justifiable and proportionate”.

It also said the watchdog’s investigation into staff complaints against Baroness Falkner, its chairman, had been flawed. revealed this year that women’s rights groups had written

‘We are pleased that the accreditation committee agree we continue to meet the highest standards’

to Ganhri accusing Stonewall of running a vindictive campaign against Lady Falkner with the same sort of “unreasonable, vexatious complaints” used to harass ordinary women at work.

In response to the letter from the women’s rights groups in February, the charity said: “Stonewall was one of dozens of LGBTQ+, human rights and disability charities that submitted evidence to Ganhri.

“Ganhri made several clear recommendations on the need for EHRC to strengthen its work to promote and protect the rights of LGBTI people, migrants and asylum seekers, people with disabilities and issues with racial discrimination, in line with international human rights standards. The issues are wide and serious, which this letter fails to acknowledge.”

Welcoming the decision, Lady Falkner pledged to retain her independence from “activist organisations wishing to unduly influence our legal opinions and policy”.

“We always believed there were inaccuracies in the submissions made against us,” she said. “We are pleased that the accreditation committee agree that we continue to meet the highest standards.”

Stonewall has been contacted for comment and said it was waiting to see the Ganhri full write-up.